The best digital art from the CG community

BLADERUNNER ALLEY

ARTIST

Jonathan Ball

SOFTWARE

Blender, Photoshop, Affinity Photo

Full-time illustrator and animator Jonathan Ball spent around three or four weeks, on and off, creating his Bladerunner Alley image. Ball was able to draw from his 15 years of experience as an artist throughout the process. “Most of my work is hardcore box modelling,” he explains, “I make everything from the basic geometry and then build in detail. As Blender doesn’t have the best cutting and welding tools I’ve had to learn ways to create industrial-looking geometry the hard way.”

Ball sees the scene as a character in itself. “I love creating worlds with lots of detail and with a unified look and feel,” he adds. “Ultimately all my art is part of one giant world that exists in my head.”

The process often begins with Ball creating a basic outline of what he wants to make. “I tend not to be too rigid when creating my own work and just go with the flow,” he explains, “as the image progresses I find some things develop organically and in different ways to how I first set out.” While Blender is Ball’s main tool, compositing render passes is a key part of achieving his desired look. He adds: “I mostly use an AO pass, a glossy pass, a depth map and some custom shader passes, like rim lighting effects and SSS effects.

I render out as many passes as possible and take them into Photoshop or Affinity, this is where I start mixing things up, using blend modes and masks and adding a few extra details.”